“Relevance isn’t just about pages—it’s also about relationships” – Mike Cassidy of Google

Hold on to your pants SEO experts, Google has announced another addition to their growing collection of search engine algorithms. Starting today, Google’s search engine page results will further incorporate social media by generating results based on social network connections (Quora, Flickr, Twitter). Google has, however, chose to omit Facebook integration for the moment. Whether this will make it’s into the algorithm in the future is left to be seen. Previously, content created or shared on social networks appeared at the bottom of page results. With the new change-up, users will begin seeing social network results ranked within their overall search results. In addition, a link, note, and photo will appear to highlight the individual that posted/shared the content.

This update could dramatically change what a user sees in their search page results and how brands choose to promote themselves. If a user searches for a particular product or service, Google will identify and generate any relevant content posted within an individual’s social network. This is a part of Google’s effort to create a more refined and relevant social search experience for users, something they hinted at when they revealed they were exploring the possibility of using social media signals for page rankings. Brands that have a strong presence among social networks may see a boost in their SEO rankings. This gives even more reason for companies to establish an strong online social presence with their customers. Being mentioned, shared, posted, liked, will change how businesses choose to promote themselves. However, To further refine the social search experience, Google will need to seriously consider integrating Facebook in the future. Facebook is after all, only the largest social networking site in existence and can provide an enormous amount of search data.

However, users won’t have to opt-in to this feature. You will have to be signed into a social network and Google to experience the different search results. If you’ve missed a relevant posting on Twitter, a quick search on Google may help you see it again. Your social network will indirectly help you with relevant search result content.

To really personalize and make the search results more relevant, Google could only display content from individual’s within your network who you interact/favorite on a regular basis with. This could work similarly to Facebook‘s news feed, which provides users with status updates from relevant friends, instead of that one random person you don’t remember from a party or classmate you never have to interact with again. This will also help prevent social network spam. Because no one enjoys spam.